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I don’t know how women feel, but I personally can’t shake the notion that it’s merely pandering, and not just to women. Now this isn’t an academic opinion, but I think it would have been worse for McCain to have selected some other old man for his running mate, someone else with just as ugly a mug as he has. (Though to be fair, its not his fault.) So I think he went with Palin, yes to go after the women’s vote, but also to put a younger, prettier face on campaign, to give him a broader, more contemporary appeal. To his credit, going younger and prettier has worked for his campaign at least for the time being, but unless Palin becomes the main candidate, John McCain’s cantankerous, sour image, at least in my eyes, is going to persist, and no number of younger, fresh faced campaign personnel additions are going to change that.

I am not impressed by McCain’s choice and I think it is pandering. It is also a huge strike against McCain’s judgement. I think the Economist put it best.

Palin is not fit to be Vice President as she does not have the experience. Does ANYONE really think she could be president? This is a question voters have to ask themselves much more so than with Joe Biden. McCain is OLD, and as Tina Faye said it, she is a heart-beat away from the presidency. An old, sickly heart-beat away.

The part that bugs me most is that she has eroded the strides made by Hillary Clinton. Hillary was qualified, and never used cliches like “hockey mom” to win sympathy votes. She did it all on competence. I sincerely hope the media exposes Palin for the inadequate candidate she is…

Personally, I am offended by the assumption made by the McCain campaign that as a voter I would support ANY candidate because I identify with the candidate’s gender, family status, ethnicity, etc. That type of thinking is what got us into trouble with Bush; as he cleared brush on his ranch, he was hailed as “just a regular guy”. The most important thing at the end of the day, is what are Palin’s positions on important issues? That is what would matter should McCain/Palin be elected. So far, we don’t know much about what she would do, because according to her, the media hasn’t given her enough “deference and respect” for her to agree to answer any questions. That comment alone should serve as a red flag.

I was astonished of what the GOP managed to accomplish here. We were just on the verge of having the first major female contender for the presidency, Hillary Clinton, highly qualified, intelligent and a leader. I don’t want just any woman in office, I want a woman who is experienced, represents the interests of women and believes in policies that do the greatest good for the greatest number . Expecting women who supported Hillary Clinton, to vote for a Republican who opposes just about everything she stands for merely because she is a female is about as sexist as it gets. Now what’s scary is that it will partly work. I’m talking about the people who have no interest in candidates’ positions and vote based on superficial characteristics, or on single issues. They’ll see a woman on the bill and vote for her. It’s the same as people who are voting for or against Obama simply because he’s black. I do think the choice will come back to bite McCain right in his behind .The biggest hurdle Obama has to overcome right now is the fact that the media is playing up the gender card helping McCain win support .

I personally, would never vote for Palin solely because she is female. Polls have found that women are more skeptical of Palin than men and that the Obama-Biden ticket understand the issues and concerns of women best. Palin’s inexperience scares me, combined with her extreme positions. She Palin isn’t being used only to lure women to vote republican, although the GOP is hopeful sisterhood will prevail. Palin was also strategically selected because McCain isn’t right-wing enough for the ultra-conservatives and she will drive home the message of the Christian-base. I hope that women as a whole are smarter than to fall for that. I don’t care why they chose her, I do care though that they have both pledged to criminalize abortion by overturning Roe vs. Wade.